History UsefulNotes / BarryGoldwater

Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s, after he became the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States in 1964; he was literally nicknamed "Mister Conservative" for his outspoken opposition to the New Deal consensus. Although he was raised as an Episcopalian and worshiped at churches in that denomination, Goldwater was the first ethnically Jewish candidate (his father was Jewish) to be nominated for president by a major American party. Despite his loss to President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson in the general election in a {{landslide|Election}},[[note]]To wit, Johnson won 486 votes in the Electoral College to Goldwater's 52 and beat him in the popular vote by 22.6 percentage points nationwide. In an ironic reversal of how the national presidential map had usually looked for over eight decades before, five DeepSouth states -- Alabama, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, Louisiana, Mississippi, and UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina -- were the only states to vote Republican besides Goldwater's native Arizona (and he was the first GOP presidential nominee ''ever'' to carry Georgia, as well as the first to carry Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina since the Reconstruction era after [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the Civil War]]). Meanwhile, Johnson swept the Northeast, where Goldwater was deeply unpopular; he (Johnson) even became the first Democrat to carry UsefulNotes/{{Vermont}} in a presidential election.[[/note]] many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow, as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican Party began a long-term realignment in American politics helped to bring about the victory of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan in the 1980 election[[note]]In a curious {{irony}}, Goldwater barely held on to his Senate seat when he ran for re-election the same year, as he faced a much tougher than expected challenge from Democratic businessman Bill Schulz and only secured victory when the absentee ballots were counted.[[/note]] and the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s. Appropriately, Reagan first became known in national politics with his "A Time for Choosing" speech, in which he endorsed Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers The Washington Post]]'' columnist George Will would write: "We [...] who voted for him in 1964 believe he won, it just took 16 years to count the votes." He retired from the Senate in 1987 and was succeeded by Congressman UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain, who praised his predecessor as the man who "transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground for the election of Ronald Reagan."

* ''Theatre/AllTheWay'' presents him as TheGhost and implies that he is a segregationist.[[note]]This is something of a HistoricalVillainUpgrade. Goldwater did not support segregation -- having voted for two civil rights acts in 1957 and 1960, which were also early landmarks, as well as founding the Arizona chapter of the NAACP and voluntarily desegregating his family business -- but opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because he believed that it was unconstitutional. This got him a lot of bad press and permanently soured him with the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, and the image of him as an opponent of civil rights stuck to him from then on.[[/note]]

* ''Theatre/AllTheWay'' presents him as TheGhost and implies that he is a segregationist.[[note]]This is something of a HistoricalVillainUpgrade. Goldwater did not support segregation -- having voted for two civil rights acts in 1957 and 1960, which were also early landmarks, as well as founding the Arizona chapter of the NAACP and voluntarily desegregating his family business -- but opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because he believed that it was unconstitutional. This got him a lot of bad press and permanently soured him with the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, and the image of him as an opponent of civil rights [[NeverLiveItDown stuck to him from then on]].[[/note]]

* ''Theatre/AllTheWay'' presents him as TheGhost and implies that he is a segregationist.[[note]]This is something of a HistoricalVillainUpgrade. Goldwater did not support segregation -- having voted for two civil rights acts in 1957 and 1960, which were also early landmarks -- but opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because he believed that it was unconstitutional. This got him a lot of bad press and permanently soured him with the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, and the image of him as an opponent of civil rights [[NeverLiveItDown stuck to him from then on]].[[/note]]

-->-- '''Acceptance speech as the 1964 Republican presidential candidate'''

Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s, after he became the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States in 1964; he was literally nicknamed "Mister Conservative" for his outspoken opposition to the New Deal consensus. Although he was raised as an Episcopalian and worshiped at churches in that denomination, Goldwater was the first ethnically Jewish candidate (his father was Jewish) to be nominated for president by a major American party. Despite his loss to President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson in the general election in a {{landslide|Election}},[[note]]To wit, Johnson won 486 votes in the Electoral College to Goldwater's 52 and beat him in the popular vote by 22.6 percentage points nationwide. In an ironic reversal of how the national presidential map had usually looked for over eight decades before, five DeepSouth states -- Alabama, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, Louisiana, Mississippi, and UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina -- were the only states to vote Republican besides Goldwater's native Arizona (and he was the first GOP presidential nominee ''ever'' to carry Georgia, as well as the first to carry Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina since the Reconstruction era after [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the Civil War]]). Meanwhile, Johnson swept the Northeast, where Goldwater was deeply unpopular; he (Johnson) even became the first Democrat to carry Vermont in a presidential election.[[/note]] many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow, as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican Party began a long-term realignment in American politics helped to bring about the victory of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan in the 1980 election[[note]]which in a curious irony saw Goldwater barely hold on to his Senate seat; as he faced a much tougher than expected challenge from Democratic businessman Bill Schulz and only secured victory when the absentee ballots were counted[[/note]] and the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s; appropriately enough, Reagan first became known in national politics with his "A Time for Choosing" speech, in which he endorsed Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers The Washington Post]]'' columnist George Will would write: "We […] who voted for him in 1964 believe he won, it just took 16 years to count the votes." He retired from the Senate in 1987 and was succeeded by Congressman UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain, who praised his predecessor as the man who "transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground for the election of Ronald Reagan."

* In the 1965 film ''Film/TheBedfordIncident'', actor Creator/RichardWidmark plays the film's antagonist, Captain Eric Finlander of the fictional destroyer USS ''Bedford'', who modelled his character's mannerisms and rhetorical style after Goldwater. At one point, Finlander even uses thick-rimmed glasses like those which had become a trademark of Goldwater.
* Goldwater appears AsHimself in the 1964 documentary ''Film/FourDaysInNovember''. Visibly subdued, he observes, in reference to his having been ready to run against UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy in 1964, that "He was the sort of antagonist I've always enjoyed", because JFK [[AvertedTrope didn't]] [[ItsPersonal make it personal]]. (Incidentally, on the subject of how LBJ trounced him, Goldwater said he thought he lost because Americans weren't ready for a third new president in fourteen months.)

* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/HeartsInAtlantis'', Peter still has an "[=AuH2O-4-USA=]" bumper sticker years after Goldwater's presidential campaign, and it briefly amuses him to think about driving to an anti-[[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam War]] protest in that car.

Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s, after he became the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States in 1964; he was literally nicknamed "Mister Conservative" for his outspoken opposition to the New Deal consensus. Although he was raised as an Episcopalian and worshiped at churches in that denomination, Goldwater was the first ethnically Jewish candidate (his father was Jewish) to be nominated for president by a major American party. Despite his loss to President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson in the general election in a {{landslide|Election}},[[note]]To wit, Johnson won 486 votes in the Electoral College to Goldwater's 52 and beat him in the popular vote by 22.6 percentage points nationwide. In an ironic reversal of how the national presidential map had usually looked for over eight decades before, five DeepSouth states -- Alabama, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, Louisiana, Mississippi, and UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina -- were the only states to vote Republican besides Goldwater's native Arizona (and he was the first GOP presidential nominee ''ever'' to carry Georgia, as well as the first to carry Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina since the Reconstruction era after [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the Civil War]]). Meanwhile, Johnson swept the Northeast, where Goldwater was deeply unpopular; he (Johnson) even became the first Democrat to carry Vermont in a presidential election.[[/note]] many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow, as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican Party began a long-term realignment in American politics helped to bring about the victory of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan in the 1980 election and the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s; appropriately enough, Reagan first became known in national politics with his "A Time for Choosing" speech, in which he endorsed Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers The Washington Post]]'' columnist George Will would write: "We […] who voted for him in 1964 believe he won, it just took 16 years to count the votes." He retired from the Senate in 1987 and was succeeded by Congressman UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain, who praised his predecessor as the man who "transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground for the election of Ronald Reagan."

Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician, statesman, businessman, US Air Force officer, and author from UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}}, representing that state in the U.S. Senate from 1953 to 1965, then again from 1969 to 1987. He previously served in the US Army and Air Force during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar.

Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s, after he became the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States in 1964; he was literally nicknamed "Mister Conservative" for his outspoken opposition to the New Deal consensus. Although he was raised as an Episcopalian and worshiped at churches in that denomination, Goldwater was the first ethnically Jewish candidate (his father was Jewish) to be nominated for president by a major American party. Despite his loss to President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson in the general election in a {{landslide|Election}},[[note]]To wit, Johnson won 486 votes in the Electoral College to Goldwater's 52 and beat him in the popular vote by 22.6 percentage points nationwide. In an ironic reversal of how the national presidential map had usually looked for over eight decades before, five DeepSouth states -- Alabama, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, Louisiana, Mississippi, and UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina -- were the only states to vote Republican besides Goldwater's native Arizona (and he was the first GOP presidential nominee ''ever'' to carry Georgia, as well as the first to carry Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina since the Reconstruction era after [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the Civil War]]). Meanwhile, Johnson swept the Northeast, where Goldwater was deeply unpopular; he (Johnson) even became the first Democrat to carry Vermont in a presidential election.[[/note]] many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow, as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican party began a long-term realignment in American politics helped to bring about the victory of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan in the 1980 election and the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s; appropriately enough, Reagan first became known into national politics with his "A Time for Choosing" speech, in which he endorsed Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers The Washington Post]]'' columnist George Will would write: "We […] who voted for him in 1964 believe he won, it just took 16 years to count the votes." He retired from the Senate in 1987 and was succeeded by Congressman UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain, who praised his predecessor as the man who "transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground for the election of Ronald Reagan."

* ''Literature/TheConscienceOfAConservative''[[note]]Actually ghostwritten by Leo Brent Bozell, a lawyer working as one of Goldwater's speech writers[[/note]]
* ''Literature/WhyNotVictoryAFreshLookAtAmericanPolicy''
* ''Literature/WhereIStand''
* ''Literature/ConscienceOfAMajority''
* ''Literature/TheComingBreakpoint''
* ''Literature/{{Arizona}}''
* ''Literature/WithNoApologiesThePersonalAndPoliticalMemoirsOfSenatorBarryMGoldwater''
* ''Literature/{{Goldwater}}''

* Goldwater appears AsHimself in the 1964 documentary ''Film/FourDaysInNovember''. Visibly subdued, he observes, in reference to his having been ready to run against UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy in 1964, that "He was the sort of antagonist I've always enjoyed", because JFK [[AvertedTrope didn't]] [[ItsPersonal make it personal]]. Incidentally, on the subject of how LBJ trounced him, Goldwater said he thought he lost because Americans weren't ready for a third new president in fourteen months.

* ''Theatre/AllTheWay'' presents him as TheGhost and implies that he is a segregationist.[[note]]This is something of a HistoricalVillainUpgrade. Goldwater did not support segregation -- having voted for two civil rights acts prior to 1964 -- but opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 out of a belief that it was unconstitutional. This got him a lot of bad press and permanently soured him with the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, and the image of him as an opponent of civil rights [[NeverLiveItDown stuck around with him from then on]][[/note]]

* ''Literature/TheConscienceOfAConservative''

* ''Theatre/AllTheWay'' presents him as TheGhost and implies that he is a segregationist. This could count as an HistoricalVillainUpgrade: He actually voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (that's the one that outlaws poll taxes), but reluctantly opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, believing one of its provisions to be unconstitutional and a potential overreach of the federal government -- a decision that considerably anguished him. Admittedly, in real life at the time his opponents ''did'' use this to group him with people who used "states' rights" as a cover for White supremacism, but at the same time several prominent Black leaders openly emphasized that they sincerely did not believe Goldwater himself had any race-based antipathy, even if his policies were inherently wrong for the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement. Later in life, he was even regarded as socially liberal for his support of letting gay men serve in the military (he explained this position by saying, "You don't have to be straight to serve in the military; you just have to be able to ''shoot'' straight").
----

* In the 1965 film ''Film/TheBedfordIncident'', actor Creator/RichardWidmark plays the film's antagonist, Captain Eric Finlander of the fictional destroyer USS ''Bedford'', who modelled his character's mannerisms and rhetorical style after Goldwater.
* Goldwater appears AsHimself in the 1964 documentary ''Film/FourDaysInNovember''. Visibly subdued, he observes, in reference to his having been ready to run against UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy in 1964, that "He was the sort of antagonist I've always enjoyed", because JFK [[AvertedTrope didn't]] [[ItsPersonal make it personal]].
** Incidentally, on the subject of how LBJ trounced him, Goldwater said he thought he lost because Americans weren't ready for a third new president in fourteen months.

* ''Theatre/AllTheWay'' presents him as TheGhost and implies that he is a segregationist. This could count as an HistoricalVillainUpgrade: He actually voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (that's the one that outlaws poll taxes), but reluctantly opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, believing one of its provisions to be unconstitutional and a potential overreach of the federal government -- a decision that considerably anguished him. Admittedly, in real life at the time his opponents ''did'' use this to group him with people who used "states' rights" as a cover for White supremacism, but even then several prominent Black leaders openly emphasized that they sincerely did not believe Goldwater was himself a racist, even if his policies were inherently wrong for the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement. Later in life, he was even regarded as socially liberal for his support of letting gay men serve in the military (he explained this position by saying, "You don't have to be straight […] you just have to be able to ''shoot'' straight").

Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician, statesman, businessman, US Air Force officer, and author who was a Senator from UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}}, serving from 1953 to 1965, then again from 1969 to 1987. He previously served in the US Army and Air Force during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar.

Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s, after he became the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States in 1964. Although raised as an Episcopalian, Goldwater was the first ethnically Jewish candidate (his father was Jewish) to be nominated for president by a major American party. Despite his loss to President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson in the general election in a {{landslide|Election}},[[note]]To wit, Johnson won 486 votes in the Electoral College to Goldwater's 52 and beat him in the popular vote by 22.6 percentage points nationwide. In an ironic reversal of the national presidential map, five DeepSouth states -- Alabama, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, Louisiana, Mississippi, and UsefulNotes/SouthCarolina -- were the only states to vote Republican besides Goldwater's native Arizona (and he was the first GOP presidential nominee ''ever'' to carry Georgia, as well as the first to carry Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina since the Reconstruction era after [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the Civil War]]). Meanwhile, Johnson swept the Northeast, where Goldwater was deeply unpopular, even becoming the first Democrat to carry Vermont in a presidential election.[[/note]] many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow, as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican party began a long-term realignment in American politics helped to bring about the victory of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan in the 1980 election and the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s; appropriately enough, Reagan first became known into national politics with his "A Time for Choosing" speech, in which he endorsed Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers The Washington Post]]'' columnist George Will would write: "We […] who voted for him in 1964 believe he won, it just took 16 years to count the votes." He retired from the Senate in 1987 and was succeeded by Congressman UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain, who praised his predecessor as the man who "transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground for the election of Ronald Reagan."

* ''Theatre/AllTheWay'' presents him as TheGhost and implies that he is a segregationist. This could count as a HistoricalVillainUpgrade: He actually voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (that's the one that outlaws poll taxes), but reluctantly opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, believing one of its provisions to be unconstitutional and a potential overreach of the federal government -- a decision that considerably anguished him. Admittedly, in real life at the time his opponents ''did'' use this to group him with people who used "states' rights" as a cover for White supremacism, but even then several prominent Black leaders openly emphasized that they sincerely did not believe Goldwater was himself a racist, even if his policies were inherently wrong for the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement. Later in life he was even regarded as socially liberal for his support of letting gay men serve in the military (he explained this position by saying, "You don't have to be straight […] you just have to be able to ''shoot'' straight").

[[caption-width-right:280:In your heart, you know he's right.[[note]]His 1964 presidential campaign slogan. Infamously countered by Democrats with: "In your guts, you know he's nuts." or with "In your heart you know he might." -- a reference to the possibility of Goldwater using nuclear weapons.[[/note]]]]

Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician, statesman, businessman, US Air Force officer, and author who was a Senator from Arizona, serving from 1953 to 1965, then again from 1969 to 1987. He previously served in the US Army and Air Force during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and UsefulNotes/KoreanWar.

Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s, after he became the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States in 1964. Although raised as an Episcopalian, Goldwater was the first ethnically-Jewish candidate (his father was Jewish) to be nominated for president by a major American party. Despite his loss in the general election in a landslide, many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow, as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican party began a long-term realignment in American politics helped to bring about the victory of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan in the 1980 election and the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s; appropiately enough, Reagan first became known into national politics with his "A Time for Choosing" speech, in which he endorsed Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers The Washington Post]]'' columnist George Will would write: "We […] who voted for him in 1964 believe he won, it just took 16 years to count the votes." He retired from the Senate n 1987 and was succeeded by Congressman UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain, who praised his predecessor as the man who "transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground for the election of Ronald Reagan."

He was married to Margaret Johnson and Susan Shaffer Wechsler, and has four children, including Barry Goldwater Jr.

Goldwater died in 1998 after complications of a stroke and was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

* Goldwater appears AsHimself in the 1964 documentary ''Film/FourDaysInNovember''. Visibly subdued, he observes, in reference that he was gearing up to run against Kennedy in 1964, that "He was the sort of antagonist I've always enjoyed", because JFK didn't make it personal.

* ''Theatre/AllTheWay'' presents him as TheGhost and implies that he is a segregationist. This could count as a HistoricalVillainUpgrade: He actually voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but reluctantly opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, believing one of its provisions to be unconstitutional and a potential overreach of the federal government—a decision that considerably anguished him. Admittedly, in real life at the time his opponents ''did'' use this to group him with people who used "states' rights" as a cover for racism, but even then several prominent Black leaders openly emphasized that they sincerely did not believe Goldwater was himself a racist, even if his policies were inherently wrong for the Civil Rights movement. Later in life he was even regarded as progressive for his support of gay men in the military.

* ''Theatre/AllTheWay'' presents him as TheGhost and implies that he is a segregationist. This could count as a HistoricalVillainUpgrade: He actually voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but reluctantly opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, believing one of its provisions to be unconstitutional and a potential overreach of the federal government—a decision that considerably anguished him. Even in 1964 several prominent Black leaders openly emphasized that they sincerely did not believe Goldwater was himself a racist, even if his policies were inherently wrong for the Civil Rights movement. Later in life he was even regarded as progressive for his support of gay men in the military.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barry_goldwater_1960.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:In your heart, you know he's right.[[note]]His 1964 presidential campaign slogan. Infamously countered by Democrats with: "In your guts, you know he's nuts." or with "In your heart you know he might." -- a reference to the possibility of Goldwater using nuclear weapons.[[/note]]]]

Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 - May 29, 1998) was an American politician, statesman, businessman, US Air Force officer, and author who served as the Senator from Arizona, serving from 1953 to 1965, then again from 1969 to 1987. He previously served in the US Army and Air Force during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and UsefulNotes/KoreanWar.

He was married to Margaret Johnson and Susan Shaffer Wechsler, and has four children, including UsefulNotes/BarryGoldwaterJr.

Goldwater died in 1998 after complications of a stroke and was suffering from alzheimer's disease.

------

!Books

* ''Literature/{{Goldwater}}''

Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 - May 29, 1998) was an American politician, statesman, businessman, US Air Force officer, and author who served as the Senator from Arizona, serving from 1953 to 1965, then again from 1969 to 1987. He previously served in the US Air Force during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and UsefulNotes/KoreanWar.